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It Is Time For A 'Parental Control, No Texting While Driving' Phone

The statistics for the number of deaths and life-altering accidents for our younger drivers are staggering. Texting while driving causes 11 teen deaths EVERY DAY. That is 11 families, schools, and communities that are forever missing children, classmates, teammates, and that great kid next door because they took that 5 seconds it takes to text that they were running late, or whatever not-so-important message they sent. Additionally texting . . .

. . . Causes 25% of all accidents, totally 1.6M per year (Nat’l Safety Council) . . . Causes 330,000 injuries per year (Harvard Center for Risk Analysis Study) . . . Is 6x more dangerous than driving while intoxicated (NHTSB) . . . Is still legal in 11 states to text while driving; only 10 fully prohibit cell phones while driving . . . Is not a teen-only problem with 47% of adults admitting to texting while driving (Washington Post, May 2012)

Each of the major carriers like AT&T or Verizon have committed marketing dollars to build awareness for the problem. Justin Bieber has created a PSA, and several entrepreneurs have created apps to curb these behaviors.

These are all fantastic first steps, but there are two things that need to happen simultaneously to dramatically curb texting and driving.

As previously stated, there are only 10 states with laws on the books that prohibit all cell phone usage while driving, but there are 11 states with no restrictions on distracted driving. The Governors Highway Safety Association is a great state-by-state resource on the current laws for cell phone usage, texting and even usage laws for school bus drivers (yes, in some states it is legal for school bus drivers to text). Additionally, it provides links of programs to address “distracted driving” laws in each state, including resources for you to support these initiatives.

The first best place to start is to lobby your local government to put “distracted driving” laws on the books. The GHSA can help get you started. However, laws will only get this part-way.

Phone Restrictions:

It is time for the major cell phone manufacturers to create a parental controlled, no-texting-while-driving smartphone. There are several apps that will cut off the keyboard when the GPS shows the phone moving over a certain speed. However, this requires parents to know about, download and install, and manage these applications – usually for their children who are smarter and more adept at turning these features off than they are.

Now, imagine the new iPhone or an Android phone with a built-in, parental-locked, no-texting feature on the phone. Upon setup, parents lock the phone when it is traveling over a certain speed – the phone can even put an “I’m driving” auto-reply to all texts coming in. For our teens, who is typically paying for the phone? Parents. Parents would flock to purchase a safe phone for their kids – even paying extra for these features. We have kids in helmets to cross the streets these days. Parents will pay.

It would be a marketing win for these companies – the saving-our-teenage-drivers phone company. The goodwill generated for these companies would only be matched by the market-share they would take over.

Interested? Share this article with your friends and colleagues and comment below that you would be interested in purchasing a parental lock, no-texting-while-driving phone. If there is enough response, I will make sure that representatives from the major manufacturers are made aware of the interest. Let’s start something.

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Thank you Forbes writer Eric Lai and SAP’s Brian Ellefritz for your collaboration in this article. If you are interested in learning more, follow Todd on Twitter @toddmwilms or connect on LinkedIn.

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Why do some people text and drive? Simply because they can’t wait until they get to their destination! Something inside of them is just itching to come out and type. They are determined to reply the text! Texting in itself is not wrong, but doing it while driving is. By texting and driving, they are at a higher risk of getting injured or eventually dying. When they text and drive, it’s like an expressway to heaven! You could cripple yourself or possibly kill your self! When people text and drive, pretty much they’re telling the cops, “Please send me to jail!!!” It depends on what state they live in, but as far as we know, in certain states it is illegal to text and drive. So the minute they pull out their phone to type those few letters, they could get pulled over and go to jail. With all of this being said, it really isn’t smart texting and driving at the same time, because you could injure or kill yourself.

Time for parental control, REALLY ! I am a father of 3 girls and a son. The oldest is 31,25, 22 and 20. they dont listen to what we preach and they never will. There is no teenager that will listen. Reasently i wrote a letter to Susian Collins, a congress women from Maine. I do alot of driving through out New England and see texting all day long as im sure you all do. Teenagers dont have the ability not to text and alot of deaths are occcuring every day. There is no parent out there that can trust in thier childs word, Heck by what i see on the high way most mom’s are texting and driving, sorry moms ! But is mostly women and teens. The state of Maine is looking at putting new laws into place and treating this just like an DUI vehicla manslaughter charge. NEW LAWS wont stop this or bring back loved ones. To little to late dont work in my eyes. A parents worst nightmare can be prevented. Our Fedural Goverment has the abillity to tell the auto makers to produce better fuel econemy cars, and they are. Lets stop something that is an easy fix !!! WOW, what would life be like without a stupid ass cell phone, yup it is handy, but a kind of like the days with out to. Why should a poor teenager have to live with killing somebody because of that phone or prisen time when they can not stop. We the human are so smart, but on the other hand, So stupid. Our insurance rates are going through the roof and peaple getting killed every day. ALL’S THAT HAS TO BE DONE TO FIX THIS IS !!!!! Our Fedural Goverment To make these Cell Phone Company’s to produce a phone that will Note Text when that GPS in that phone Starts to move. I dont much care for Big Buisness. They should do this on there own, NAAA its easrer just to put out an AD saying dont text and drive. Ya Right apparently they dont have kids or they’re listen to them. RIGHT !! I will say that my kids dont listen to me. But damned if your gonna blame this shit on us parents. Good Luck Yours. P.S. Im 100% sure that you will end up being the best parent in the world just like all of us ! But Yours Wont Listen Either. Bottom Line I want my kids to grow up and have familys and Yours too. We can live without Texting and driving for 5 minutes or 2 hours. That would be a nightmare to have to talk instead of a texting. Lets Make A Differance, New Laws Will Not Stop This !

There’s also a less restrictive alternative. Have training for properly managing your attention and have people get certified to drive while texting because they now effectively have an attention level while texting that exceeds the minimum acceptable level for driving.

Since you can’t get people to obey, prevention that benefits them might be a better alternative.